2016 Essay Winners

Literacy is the Recipe for Success 

Dmytro Chasovskykh

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”

― Winston Churchill

While I was busy typing and googling the internet, humming something to myself, my daughter Masha came to my room.

She was full of curiosity and asked inquisitively: "So, What’s cooking? Anything interesting?"
Smiling cheerfully I answered her: "It seems to me that we are going to cook some success tonight."
"Wow, is that even possible?" - She asked quizzically with that special smile of hers. "Frankly speaking, your guess is as good as mine. However, let’s start with the following question. What is success for you, Masha?"

She answered eagerly and without any delay: "For me, it's to understand and to be understood, thus to express my thoughts as accurately as possible. Important to realize that literacy is my recipe for success!"

“Yes, those are excellent definitions of success!” - I was impressed how quickly she found answers for which I had been painfully hunting.

After an amused pause, I said: "So these are the dishes we are learning to cook tonight! Are you hungry yet? Now that we’ve covered the theory, let’s see it in action."

First of all always have fresh and top-notch ingredients - that's one of the many pieces of advice my wife Olga has given me. Therefore, for improving literacy these three ingredients you need to consider: reading, writing and communication.

With this in mind, try to read at least 10 pages a day (so let’s say ten cups of reading). Easy-peasy! Of course! Even so, my own experience has shown that the devil actually is in the details. In addition to the recommendation above, use the Flesch’s readability score to assess reading ease and then change the difficulty gradually. No more than ten unfamiliar words per page at any time should be met (only ten spoons of sugar per portion, remember!).

Now let’s talk about writing. That can be scary! Procrastination will follow you everywhere like a shadow of your writing process. But that's all right as you’re not alone in this feeling and a great deal of people feel the same way! Just follow these rules and you should be fine:

a) Keep all of your writing in one place (one bowl);
b) Practice writing in English daily (stir, stir, stir ...);
c) Choose a topic and write (now you‘re cooking with gas!);
d) Write more than one draft. Keep on re-writing it (the first pancake is always lumpy ) J
e) Consult yourself with grammar books often (like your grandma’s favorite recipe book);
f) Have somebody to proofread it (Here we go – taste test!).

Point often overlooked that speaking is a much more spontaneous process than writing, and nothing prepares you for it better than actually doing it. For this purpose, find a pal, you can exercise it with. It is needless to say that our Library literacy teachers and students offer unlimited service and support for your speaking practice.

Sometimes adults avoid literacy classes like they would avoid rotten eggs and moldy bread for food, but I've never felt that way toward the Palm Harbor Library program. On the contrary, I truly enjoy learning and the teaching provided here is brilliant. As a matter of fact, we wouldn’t be able to improve without our Literacy Leadership in the office and dedication of many wonderful tutors who encouraged my family and me not to give up.

After all, as a culinary artist of your success, take pride in your “dish”! Take time to taste your victory and share it with your family and friends.

Bon Appetite!

A Recipe for Effective Communication: Communication Is Like a Cake 

by Kasia Biziuk

What does communication mean?

The simple definition of communication is: the act or process of mixing words, sounds, signs, or behaviors (ingredients) to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, to someone else.

Communication forms an essential part of our life. It is very important to us to share happiness and sorrows through communication. Moreover, communication is the foundation of all human relationships; family, friends, work, business or even strangers. Communication also helps to facilitate the process of sharing information and knowledge. Therefore, the importance of communication cannot be underestimated.

What ingredients should good communication include to achieve positive relationships?

Talking and listening are very important in everyday relationships. What we say and how we say it, can make or break a relationship. When we talk, we should be aware of what we’re saying for our message to be clearly understood. However, communication is not a one-way street. It is as important to listen properly as it is to talk. When we listen, it’s important to pay attention to things such as small tone changes or body language. Paying attention to that helps with better understanding the message because, for example, we can tell if the person talking is being serious or kidding around.

Communication isn’t limited to talking or listening. In the age of social media, most of our communication is done by writing emails, messages on Facebook or text messages. When we communicate by writing , we’re usually not face to face with the people and so they can’t read our cues. That’s why when we write it’s important to go into more details or facts and avoid things like sarcasm, to prevent confusion and make the message clear. However we choose to communicate, to maintain positive relationships and avoid conflict it is always significant to take the other person into consideration. Whether we’re talking or listening, the main goal is for the message to be clear and for people to be able to share with one another. Communication is like a delicious cake. To make a cake we need different ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs. Same goes for communication. The words we choose, body language and listening are the ingredients we need for positive communication.

Literacy is the Recipe for Success

By Sladjana Pavlovic

Everybody has a story. This is mine.

My story began in November 2014 when my family and I moved from Belgrade city of Serbia, to Palm Harbor, Florida.

It was difficult and different…Different stores ,different rules in traffic ,huge and large streets with “difficult” names to say, different kind of food, health insurance,TV programs… But the most important thing for me was the unknown language.

When I remember, it was very hard especially in important situations when my children were sick. And they needed a doctor. This would mean that I had to call an office schedule an appointment, describe the symptoms of the disease.” But , how ? I don’t know English?”Can you imagine how I felt?”Oh My God, I knew exactly what I wanted to say but I didn’t have the words and sentences.” Funny and scary at the same time.

Those days I felt like mute person, I felt as I came from another planet.

For me that meant only one thing, I must start to learn English from the beginning! My native language is Serbian. It has 30 letters, and each letter means one voice. So, I knew from the start, that the English language is much more complicated.

I needed to learn how to spell the letters and learn phonetics rules. At the beginning I spelled my first and second name, the names of my children, name of my husband. Later I began to spell street names. It was complicated but I had successfully done it. I wanted more than that. Then, I continued with simple things such as children’s cartoons, songs and books , which in my case was not a problem ,my children loved it. Also, we went to the playgrounds, met with new people, absorbed new information .Each conversation meant a new word .Every day was a chance to learn something new.

Hour by hour, day by day, month by month. Time passed, and I was more confident when I talked to someone in English.

In the meantime, I heard about English learning program for adults in Palm Harbor Library. With the help of wonderful people from the library , especially with Mrs. Tanja and Mr. Arthur I started learning English language online which is called “Reading Horizon”. This is an audio visual program and the only thing you need is your laptop ,headphones and the most important part the desire to learn .This program includes parts such as lessons, vocabulary, library, pronunciation, games and report were my tutor follow my progress online. This program contains chapters and if you successfully pass the first chapter you can move to another one. If you do not pass the test of that chapter, you must working on it until you pass. When you finish a lesson you can go to the part that is called “library”, where you can read the books and collect points. When you get tired from learning you can go to play games. It’s interesting and useful at the same time because you can learn from your home while your children play or sleep.

If you want to progress, you have to work every day , not only with the library program. You can read the local newspapers, listen to radio, watch the local news on TV. Also, you cannot feel fear when talking with somebody on English, even if you know that you didn’t speak well. Practical speech is the only way to learn to speak.

Maybe for someone else my story is simple and usuall, but for me is very special. I wrote this story in English so I can say this is my first written success in English , and I know it will not be the only one.